Chapter 21

"So when Gally came out of the showers, he didn't have a towel. He looked so mad!" Chuck snorted as he and Mary were washing out the pig slops.

Mary let out a snicker. "Damn, I wish I had thought of doing that..." She shook her head.

"He was the one who gave me the idea. I heard him talking about how he was going to do that to you." Chuck kept laughing. Mary's face turned to him with her jaw dropped.

"He what?" She asked as if she was offended.

"I said he-"

"No I heard you, I just can't believe it." She shook her head with a snicker.

They kept on talking as they were cleaning out the slop bins and a couple times she had stepped in mud. She couldn't believe that Chuck had to do stuff like this himself. She was fit, she was a runner and right now she had sweat dripping from her forehead and hair falling out of the bun on her head. She looked over at Chuck who didn't even seem like he was breaking a sweat.

"Hey! Help! Help!" Someone shouted.

Mary and Chuck stopped what they were doing and stood up, trying to pinpoint where the shouting was coming from.

"Help!" They heard again.

Thomas flew out of the deadheads, making a run from Ben who seemed to be chasing him. The whole Glade stood and watched as Thomas was running for his life, but why was he running from Ben? And why was Ben in the Glade in the middle of the day? She looked closer at Ben and saw the dark purple veins running up his neck. Next thing everyone saw was Ben jumping at Thomas and pinning him to the ground.

"What's wrong with Ben?" Chuck asked, voice shaking. Chuck hasn't ever seen a Griever, never experienced a Changing or a banishment. Chuck just got here and he's as pure as pure can get.

"Looks like he's sick." She mumbled out as she met Newt's eyes from across the Glade. She saw him run from the garden with a shovel as a bunch of other Gladers ran in the direction of Ben and Thomas.

Mary jumped the wooden fence surrounding the pig-pen and launched herself in the direction of Thomas and Ben. Ben's hands were now around Thomas' neck, choking him.

"I'll kill you!" Ben shouted.

"Ben stop!" She shouted as she tried to pull him off of Thomas, but he shoved her away.

"Ben!" Newt shouted. Ben swung his head towards Newt just in time to get smacked by the shovel Newt had in his hands.

Just like that, Ben fell to the ground next to Thomas.

Gally, Fry, Newt and some other Gladers pinned Ben to the ground.

"Here." Mary groaned as she helped Thomas up off the ground and pulled him as far away from Ben as possible.

"What are you doing?" Newt asked Ben, who still seemed to be going crazy. Mary could see the dark veins crawling up Ben's neck even more now. His hair was dripping with sweat and his face was clammy. the whites of his eyes were now a dark purpley-red. There was now blood trickling down his face from where Newt hit him.

"What happened?" Fry asked Thomas.

"I was getting fertilizer when he attacked me!" Thomas said in between breaths.

Mary leaned down between Gally and Newt. "He's supposed to be running today. The hell is he in here?" She asked them, but they seemed even more confused than she was. Alby came up and looked down at Ben.

"Lift his shirt." Alby asked.

"No, please no!" Ben pleaded. Mary reached down and lifted his shirt to reveal a Griever sting. It looked like a fresh sting... Only it seemed to be spreading a lot quicker.

"He's been stung... In the middle of the day?" Gally asked everyone.

Mary shook her head. "Being stung is one thing... But to have it spread this quick..." She was going to continue but Alby shot her a look.

"Take him to the Slammer, Med-Jacks, follow 'em." Alby ordered.

"No! Alby Please!" Ben begged. Alby turned his back on Ben and walked away. The guys who were restraining Ben picked him up and carried his squirming body to the Slammer. Just like that, the Gladers dispersed, leaving only Thomas and Mary standing in the empty field.

"What the hell happened to him?" Thomas asked.

Mary squinted her eyes shut and sighed. He's been here a day... Of course he's going to have questions. She turned around and faced him.

"Look, I don't think I'm the person to tell you that, Tom." She tried to let it slide as she slowly walked in the opposite direction. She could hear him following her. "What?" She asked, annoyed that he was starting to follow her.

"Wait so crazy shit like this just happens and then you guys all keep going on with your day like nothing ever happened? How are you not phased by this?" Thomas asked.

She turned around instantly. "We are phased by this." She almost shouted at him. She took a deep breath to calm herself down. "Look. You wouldn't understand. You've been here a day and we've been here for... For a lot longer than that. We've lost a lot of people; some really good people who didn't deserve to die. We've all been through a lot. After a while you just kinda have to keep on keepin' on, y'know?" She tried to explain. Thomas seemed to understand, given he hadn't been here for the amount of time she had been. She could see something change in his eyes. "It's hard to get used to it. It's always hard." She said honestly. It actually gets harder every time they lost someone. She shook her head and cleared her throat. "Anyway, how are you, you okay?" She asked.

"Yeah." He rubbed his wrist. She eyed it and reached out, but he pulled away.

"Oh please, I'm the last person here who would attack you." She rolled her eyes. Thomas held out his arm and she lightly held it out and winced. "He got you kinda deep. I can wrap that up if you want." She offered. Thomas just nodded.

She brought him to the Med-Jack hut which was currently empty. Clint and Jeff must have still been dealing with Ben. She walked over to the counter and opened a drawer and grabbed some alcohol and some bandages.

"Here, sit down." She nodded towards the cot. Thomas did as he was told and took a seat. Mary took a seat across from him and put the bandage next to her, unscrewing the cap of the alcohol. "I'm not going to lie to you, this is going to hurt." She warned him. He shrugged as if to tell her to get on with it. Mary poured some alcohol on his wrist and heard him wince. She put the cap on the bottle, sitting it down next to her and grabbing the bandage. "Sorry." She smirked, "I did warn you." Mary went to wrap his wrist.

Thomas was surprised at how tender she was being while wrapping his wrist. The entire time, he was watching her face as she concentrated on fixing up his arm.

"So... You're a Med... Medical person?" He asked, not quite able to remember what they were called.

Mary chuckled. "No I'm a runner."

"One of those people that Ben is?" He asked, she nodded. "Then how do you know what you're doing?"

"Clint and Jeff... Our two Med-Jacks taught me the basics... After getting hurt so much in the maze they've sent me out there a lot with some bandages just in case." She explained.

"You get hurt a lot out there?" He scrunched his eyebrows. "Why do you go out then?"

"Someone's gotta find us a way out, right?" She laughed, finishing up with his wrist and kept her hands there against his arm. Thomas looked down at his hand and saw she hadn't moved away yet. She looked like she was thinking hard about something. Thomas would be lying to himself if he said that none of this seemed familiar. This place, these people, even Mary seemed familiar. It all seemed like he'd been here before. But when he saw her it was a different kind of familiar. Like he knew her. He was thinking hard about it. He's remembered talking to her before. Laughing with her, arguing with her, crying with her. He felt like she was his best friend, but maybe in a past life.

"I know you." When he said it she locked eyes with him. Her distant stare into space was replaced with worry.

"You do?" She asked.

Thomas nodded. "I feel like I know you." He whispered. Mary looked down with disappointment and shrugged.

"Who knows, maybe we knew each other before the maze." She suggested.

"Why can't I remember you, or any of it?"

"They wiped our memories Tom. No one remembers anything." She explained.

"Tom... No one calls me Tom. No one but-" He stopped himself, trying to remember. "No one but someone calls me Tom."

"I can call you Tommy?" She smiled.

"No, Newt's taken to that." He smiled.

"Sure have, Tommy." They both turned towards the door to see Newt leaning against the doorframe, eyes glued on both of them. Mary stood up, clearing her throat and walking back towards the drawer and put the remainder of the bandages away. All the while, Newt's eyes were on her. "You okay?" Newt asked Thomas.

"Yeah, she was fixing up the marks Ben gave me." Thomas said as he stood up, rubbing his bandage.

"Good that, Alby's looking for you. He wants to ask you about what happened." Newt explained.

"Yeah I'll head over there now then." Thomas nodded. "Thanks again Mar." Thomas thanked her and she smiled as he left the hut.

As soon as Thomas left, the air between Newt and Mary became thick. She busied herself with putting away some of the stock that was brought up in the box yesterday that had been left out. She could still feel Newt in the room, and hear him walking towards her. He leaned against the counter in front of the drawer she needed to open and stared at her. She looked up at him.

"What was that all about?" He asked curiously.

"What was what about?" She asked.

"Mary don't play games. I came in right after you fixed him up." He told her. Mary shrugged, not sure what to say and sighed for what felt like the hundredth time today. "He remembers you?"

"Who can say? He just said that I was familiar. You heard him."

"But he said it felt different with you." He stood up straight. Newt's voice sounded slightly predatorily. That's when it dawned on her. He was jealous. She knew he had nothing to worry about. Thomas was her brother, not her lover. Thomas, after some time, will come to realize that. Newt didn't know that he was Mary's brother. After hearing them bonding a moment ago, he must've been getting the wrong idea.

"If you're worried about him getting in my pants, don't be." She rolled her eyes. She went to open the drawer he now moved away from, but he stopped her by putting his hand over it.

"Mary, I'm serious." He whispered.

"I know you are, and I'm telling you that you don't have anything to worry about Newt. I mean it." She assured him.

"How can you be so sure. Did you see the way he looked at you?" He asked.

"Yes I did. I know he isn't trying anything because it would be a little weird to do that with your sister." She put a hand on her hip.

Newt looked taken aback. "He's your... Brother?" Newt asked. "The one from the maze?"

Mary nodded. "He doesn't know." She whispered. "I have a feeling if we tell him he'll start asking even more questions that even we don't have answers to."

"How can you be sure?" He asked.

"His voice, I recognized it when I heard it last night." She explained. "And my brothers name is Tom... Thomas?" She pieced together.

Newt looked like he was trying to process all the information quickly in his head. Mary leaned against the counter with an amused look.

"So he's not into you like that?" Newt finally spoke up.

"Is that all you got from this?" She rolled her eyes.

"So you're waiting for him to realize it?" Newt asked.

Mary nodded. "I don't care who else knows, I just don't want him to find out right now. At least not until he's gotten used to everything in the Glade. I don't want him to have to process all this new stuff and a sister on top of it all."

"Alby's going to want to know about this."

"I know." She ran a hand through her hair in frustration.

"Speaking of Alby, I almost forgot why I was here. Alby's called a gathering."

Mary walked into the homestead with Newt where all the other Keepers were.

"Hey, there's the ex-lovebirds." Minho teased from the couch.

"Shut it." Newt hit Minho upside the head.

"About time though. We were waiting for you two to start the gathering." Gally told them.

Mary took a seat on the arm of the couch as Newt stood next to her. "Well thanks for waiting. I was fixing up Thomas."

"How's he doing?" Alby asked.

"He was fine, besides Ben digging his nails into Tom's wrist, he's good." She told him. "What happened?"

"Clint and Jeff were trying to give him Serum as we were holding him down." Alby explained.

"We gave him two viles, the guy was still acting crazy. I've never seen someone react so fast to getting stung. You and Gally's sting didn't even spread this quick." Clint explained. Gally and Mary looked at each other.

"He's in the Slammer right now, still acting psycho. I don't know what else we can do." Jeff shook his head.

"What do you mean?" She asked.

"We were thinking about banishing him into the maze if it doesn't get any better." Gally told her.

"What?" She almost shouted. "This is Ben we're talking about. Ben's been here for almost as long as we have. Our first Greenie." She tried to tell the others, but when she looked at everyone, it seemed they had already discussed banishing him was the plan. "Well you guys already know my vote." She sighed.

"Majority rules." Alby told her.

"Whatever. This is shuckin' stupid." She crossed her arms.

"He could've killed Thomas." Alby told her.

"But he didn't!" She countered.

"We're waiting the night to see if he gets better. If not, then it's settled. We're banishing him." Alby explained to all of them. "Any other concerns?" Alby asked the group. Newt caught Mary's eye and nodded towards Alby. "What?" Alby asked after seeing the look they shared.

"There's something you should know about the new guy..." She began.

"He's your shuck brother, ain't he?" Minho interrupted. Mary looked over at him. Minho shrugged. "Your brother's name is Tom, it's kind of obvious bro."

"He's your brother?" Alby asked.

"Yeah, Minho's right." She nodded.

"How do you know for sure?" He asked her.

"He's got the same voice." She shrugged. Alby looked over at Minho.

"This true?" He asked.

Minho also shrugged. "The shank sounds the same as the shank we were talking to in the maze, that's for sure."

"Also just a gut feeling." She added.

"Does he know?" Alby asked. Mary shook her head. "Good. We should keep it that way for now." Alby announced.

"What?" Minho asked. "So I can't tease the Greenie about his new sister?"

"We ain't going to let him know just yet. If we tell him, who knows. He might think we know more than we let on. He won't trust us." Alby explained. This gained mumbles of agreement from the other Keepers. "I already talked to Thomas today and told him what happened to Ben and what the Changing was. That was a lot to explain and I'm shuckin' tired. I'm calling it a night."

The next day, Mary got up early for the maze and headed out to run her section. She got about four hours into running when she started to see droplets of blood leading down the maze corridor. She thought about it, this is where Ben would've been running. She got to a fork in the road where she would usually turn right, the blood drops were leading left. Mary shamed herself for even thinking about going in the direction where he had gotten stung, but her feet were already leading her there. She followed the route for about an hour, creeping behind every corner just in case a Griever was waiting for her on the other side. Each time nothing was there and the blood ended up disappearing.

Mary yawned as she continued on with her own route. She barely got any sleep last night. If the thoughts she had running through her head weren't enough to keep her awake, the screams coming from Ben in the Slammer were more than enough to keep up the entire Glade. She heard him screaming as she left to run her section for the day. He wasn't getting any better, in fact he sounded like he was getting worse. She was too scared to see how he looked now. She assumed his entire skin was starting to become purple like the veins he had going up his neck yesterday.

By the time Mary got back to the Glade, Keepers were already at the doors for the banishing. She ran straight past them and into the map room. She wasn't going to be present for what was going on out there. Ben was one of her friends and she didn't want to see this happen to him. She mapped her section for the first time with the map room door closed. She closed it so she didn't have to hear Ben screaming, but even with the heavy door shut, she could hear it.

Mary brought her dinner up to her room that night. She didn't want to sit in the kitchen and hear people talking about the banishing. She wanted to eat, go to bed, and wake up in the morning and run her section. She just got settled when she heard a knock on her door. She got up and walked towards it with a sigh.

"Newt, I really just want to be left alone right now." She said as she opened the door. It wasn't Newt, it was Thomas. He stood at her door holding two plates of food. "Oh sorry I thought you were Newt." She laughed awkwardly. He held out a plate for her to take.

"No just me. Sorry. I don't really know any other Gladers and Chuck has gone to bed without eating. I think seeing Ben get banished was too much for him. Can I join you?" He asked politely.

"Yeah of course." She said as she moved out of the way for him to come in. She really didn't want company, but Thomas seemed just as lonely as she did at the moment. He took a seat at the end of her bed, cross-legged. She closed the door and took a seat at the other end and leaned against her pillow and they started to eat in silence.

"I get what you mean now." Thomas was the first one to speak.

"Huh?" She asked.

"How you have to 'keep on keepin' on'. If no one did, all these kids would be sitting in a corner crying."

"Yeah well some days are better than others. Today was one of the not-so-good days. Ben was friends with a lot of Gladers. He's been here for a really long time. To see him get stung and then banished..." She tried to finish the sentence but she felt a tear fall down her cheek. "Sorry."

"No it's okay." He said and took another bit of his rice. "I just wish I knew what's out there. I wish we could get out of here. All these kids deserve better. You deserve better and you're stuck in here too." He looked down at his plate. He laughed nervously and looked away. Mary stared up at him as he fiddled with the food on his plate. "Sorry that sounded weird... I'm not trying to- I don't want to make you feel weird..."

She laughed at how awkward he was being. "You didn't. We're getting out of here. There's and end, we just haven't found it yet." She assured him. "We can't give up. I won't let anyone in here give up, you hear me?"

Thomas nodded. They ate the rest of their dinner in silence. There was no awkwardness in the air, it was a comfortable silence. After they finished, Thomas grabbed both of their plates.

"I'll take these back to Frypan." He told her as he headed to the door. Mary opened it for him.

"Thanks for coming by. It was nice having someone to talk to." She smiled. Thomas returned the smile with a nod. He got outside and turned back to look at her.

"Why'd you think I was Newt?" He asked curiously.

"He's usually the one to come cheer me up, I guess." She shrugged.

"He seems like he cares a lot about you." Thomas mentioned.

Mary raised an eyebrow. "And?"

"And you clearly care a lot about him, don't you?" He asked.

Mary shook her head and gave him a look as if to say he was sticking his nose in where it didn't belong but she just laughed. "Good night Tom." She smiled as she closed the door.

"Night Mar." She could see the smirk on his face as she was closing the door.

Mary got to the maze doors the next morning earlier than she usually did. She sat on a boulder by the door and tied up her laces as Minho, a couple other runners, Newt and Alby came walking up.

"About time. I thought you were gonna sleep in." She said to Minho.

"I've never slept in. Can't say the same about some other people though." He shot her a look.

"What's going on?" She asked Newt and Alby. Alby was dressed in runner gear.

"I'm retracing Ben's steps with Minho today." He told her.

"What? But that's my section." She squinted.

"Not today it ain't. We just need to see if there was anything weird where he got stung. Anything to explain why the sting reacted so badly to him." Alby explained.

"Whose section am I getting then?" She asked, already knowing the answer.

Minho smiled. "You're getting mine, princess."

"You've got the longest section." She crossed her arms.

"Look it's just so Alby and Minho can figure out what's going on, alright." Newt explained. "Besides Minho agreed to give you the shortest section tomorrow."

Mary looked at all three boys. "Fine." She picked up her backpack from the ground and headed for Minho's section by the East doors. She could hear the doors opening behind her and looked over her shoulder as Alby and Minho said goodbye to Newt and ran into the maze. Newt jogged after Mary and walked with her to the East doors that were in the deadheads.

"I could've retraced his steps y'know." She told him as he limped next to her.

"I know." He agreed.

She glanced over at him. "Then why couldn't I do it?"

He shrugged. "I didn't want you to get hurt."

"Well jokes on you because I already tried retracing his route yesterday." She said matter-of-factly.

"You what?"

"Mhm, you heard me." She glanced over at him and saw him smiling. "What's so funny?"

"Nothing really, I probably would've done the same thing if I was you." He chuckled. "Did you find anything?"

"Not really but I found a trail of blood leading away from my regular route and followed it for a while." She told him as she felt a branch crack under her foot.

"That's something." He commented.

"The blood ended up disappearing and then I was left standing in the middle of an empty maze. Who know's maybe Alby and Minho will find something." She said as they got to the doors. Mary was about to run inside when Newt stopped her. "What?"

"Just... try to stay safe. Something's going on out there, we both know it." He looked into the maze. Mary looked into the maze and then back at Newt. He looked like he had a lot going on in his head.

"Don't worry, I just wanna get my section over with. I'm not going to be looking for any trouble today." She assured him, tying her hair up into a knot.

"I thought trouble found you?" He scrunched his eyebrows.

She shrugged. "Sometimes I go looking for it."

Newt hesitated before he leaned in quickly and kissed her, making her freeze. "Get back safe, yeah?"

She nodded quickly before bolting into the maze and turning the corner. As soon as she couldn't see the Glade anymore, Mary stopped and leaned against the wall of the maze, sliding down until she felt herself sitting on the gravel.

She shuckin' ran as soon as he kissed her? She knew they were on speaking terms, she knew she wasn't mad at him anymore... But they weren't really together like that anymore... Were they? She realized that after they'd talked everything out, they didn't really state what they were anymore. She knew one thing was clear, she still had feelings for him. She acted like a twelve year old girl when he kissed her just then. She felt the butterflies when he looked her in the eye and she was pretty sure the blush on her cheeks molded onto the rest of her face to make her look like a tomato. She shook her head and stood back up.

"Focus Mary... Don't get yourself killed today." She said to herself as she picked up the pace and returned to running.

Newt on the other hand watched Mary run into the maze and turn the corner. As soon as she was out of sight he let his head fall back with a groan.

"Nice Newt." He mumbled to himself. He kissed her? She practically ran away from him like he was a Griever. He didn't think when he did it. It just felt natural. They felt natural. He walked back to the Glade as he was overthinking everything.

She's going to come back and avoid me for weeks.

That was the only thing he could think of. They just became friends again, and he just shucked that up entirely.

During the day word spread quickly that Alby had gone into the maze to retrace Ben's steps with Minho. It became obvious when no one had seen Alby all day. One-by-one Runners were returning and piling into the mapping room to draw out the day's route. Hank was the first one to come back, then Joe and Steve and a few more. Mary was the last person to come back. Everyone was in the map room except Minho and Alby.

Mary finished mapping her section and left the map room. She was going to head to dinner when she saw what looked like every Glader gathered at the maze doors that Alby and Minho left through that morning. Mary walked over and pushed her way to the front of the group of boys, next to Thomas and Newt.

"What's going on, they're not back yet?" She asked them. Not quite meeting Newt's eye.

"No. Not back yet." He said.

"Can't we send someone in after them?" Thomas asked.

"No, it's against the rules. Either they make it back or they don't." Gally said from the other side of Thomas.

"We can't risk losing anyone else." Newt told Thomas.

"This is risky, the door's will close any minute..." She mumbled. Just as she said that, the ground began to shake and the doors began to slowly come together.

"There!" Thomas shouted. Everyone looked from the maze doors to the end of the hall. Minho and Alby could be seen turning the corner.

"Wait, something's wrong." Newt said.

"He's been stung." Mary said, looking at Minho carrying Alby's body on his back. Shuck, I knew this was a bad idea." She rubbed her forehead.

"Come on Minho, you can do it!" Chuck shouted. Everyone else started cheering them on.

"They're not going to make it." Newt said.

Before anyone could stop him, Thomas sprinted into the maze, between the closing doors.

"Thomas!" Newt shouted after him. Mary tried to grab him, but he was already too far away from her to catch. For a second everyone was sure he was going to get stuck between the doors of the maze. They were so close together that Thomas was shimmying between them. Just before the doors closed, they could see him fall to the ground.

Mary didn't know which was worse. Getting sandwiched between maze doors or being stuck in the maze full of Grievers for a night. No one has ever survived a night in the maze. As soon as the doors shut, the Glade fell silent.

So I'm just going to take this time to say a few things.

1) I just want to thank everyone for being so awesome and favouriting/following/reviewing. Not going to lie, every time i get a review it reminds me that I need to write again. I'm also loving your reviews. Don't hesitate to let me know what you're really thinking. I have a plan/idea for where I'm going with this (kinda) but if you have any ideas don't be afraid to shoot them at me. I also love hearing your comments about Thomas/Mary/Newt/Minho. They're awesome. You guys are awesome. Thanks for the support.

2) If any of you guys read my other fanfic you probably know by now that I'm horrible at commitment. I haven't forgotten about it I just have a life and I do this for fun. If I go a long time without posting a new chapter then that's most likely because I forgot about it (oops). So again, getting reviews from time to time reminds me to write and inspire me to write. I can't promise you I'm going to finish this story, but I will try my best to.

3) If it's not already obvious, I've been incorporating things from both the book AND the movie. I'm watching the scenes I'm writing AS I'm writing for reference. I HAVE read the books (just an FYI). I read them like three years ago so I haven't remembered all of it. I think it's kind of interesting, incorporating things from both the book AND the movie because it makes things a little different. LIKE WHO KNOWS WHAT'S GOING TO HAPPEN NEXT?! I hope that doesn't turn too many people away. I'm sorry if that pisses you off but that's just what's going to be happening. I thought I'd let you know NOW so you don't leave a comment like "Oh that happened in the movie not the book" or "the book and not the movie" and "what's going on are you following the book or the movie I'm confused". I'm DoInG bOtH.

ANYWAY

Hope you liked this chapter, it was hella long and not going to lie I was tipsy for most of it and did it all in one sitting. I did read over it but again, I'm tipsy and may have missed some grammatical/spelling mistakes. Sorry... I get so self conscious about those I try my best not to do that but if you EVER see one please let me know SO I CAN FIX IT OKAY? Okay.

Thanks for reading

You da bomb.

I'm outtie.